Prior to the arrival of German immigrants, Allentown and the region was inhabited by the LenapeNative American tribe, which spoke the Unami language.[1]
The German immigrants who settled present-day Allentown and the surrounding Lehigh Valley were mostly fleeing religious persecution and war at the time in Germany and were drawn to Allentown and its surrounding communities by the region's reputation for religious freedom and fertile farming land. Later, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the city and region's reputation as a central manufacturing location during the American Industrial Revolution attracted a second wave of German and other European immigrants who sought economic opportunity and jobs afforded by its anthracite coal, iron ore, steel, railroad, and other manufacturing and mining industries.
The Soldiers and Sailors Monument, located on Allentown's center square on South 7th Street, was erected on October 19, 1899, in honor of Union Army soldiers from Allentown and local Lehigh Valley towns and boroughs who died in combat in the American Civil War. In April 1861, the 47th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment from Allentown and its suburbs was deployed to defend the national capital in Washington, D.C., and later launched bold and effective attacks on Confederate positions, tilting the Civil War in the Union's favor.[2][3]
An aerial view of Lehigh Structural Steel Company in Allentown in 1959
In the early 19th century, Allentown was one of the cities and regions that sparked the Industrial Revolution in the United States as the city emerged as an early national mining and industrial manufacturing hub. Allentown's Lehigh Canal, which afforded the city and region the ability to utilize the Lehigh River for the transport of anthracite coal, iron ore, steel, and other products from the region to nation's largest markets, especially New York City and Philadelphia made Allentown a center of early American industrialization, which continued until the late 20th century when foreign competition, regulations, trade practices, manufacturing costs, innovation and other trends combined to force substantial downsizings, bankruptcies, and outsourcing of many of these traditionally strong regional manufacturing industries.
Immigration
Migration to Allentown and the region continued through most of the 19th and 20th century with additional German immigrants followed by waves of Italians and Asians. In the late 20th century, Hispanics, primarily Puerto Ricans arriving directly from Puerto Rico or indirectly from nearby New Jersey and New York City, immigrated to the city and currently comprise a sizable percentage of the city's population.
As of the 2010 census, Allentown's demographic composition was 43.2% White (non-Hispanic), 42.8% Hispanic, 11.6% Black, and 2.2% Asian.[4]
In the late 20th and early 21st century, Allentown's image and character as one of the nation's most prominent examples of a rugged industrial Rust Belt city was reflected globally in the city's appearance in several movies, television shows, and songs.
Major Philadelphia-based network stations serving Allentown include: KYW-TV (CBS), WCAU (NBC), WPVI-TV, and WTXF-TV (Fox). There are also other network and local television stations.[6][7][8]
The Great Allentown Fair, one of the nation's longest standing fairs held annually since 1852, is held the end of each August and early September. Mayfair Festival of the Arts, an arts festival, is held annually on the campus of Cedar Crest College each May. Musikfest, the nation's largest free music festival, is held annually in neighboring Bethlehem each August. Das Awkscht Fescht, the country's largest antique and classic car show, is held annually in early August in neighboring Macungie; in August 2022, it will hold its 58th consecutive show.[10]
The city has long struggled with graffiti throughout the city. In an effort to eliminate it, the city has painted murals in some of its city parks and high graffiti locations, arresting graffiti artists and giving out rewards for turning in those who deface buildings with graffiti.
Allentown has a long tradition of producing successful national musical acts and groups. In the 21st century, Pissed Jeans, a hardcore punk group founded in Allentown in 2005,[14] and Pearls and Brass, a stoner rock band founded in 2001 from neighboring Nazareth,[15] both started as local Allentown acts, were ultimately signed, and have since developed strong national and global followings.
Youth Education in the Arts (YEA) is headquartered in Allentown its home and sponsors The Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps, a ten-time DCI world champion, in addition to a senior drum and bugle corps, a competitive scholastic marching band circuit, and the Urban Arts Center in the Lehigh Valley.
Allentown is mentioned in the lyrics of indie rock band Say Anything in their song "Fed to Death," the opening song on their 2009 album Say Anything. The song's lyrics also reference neighboring Nazareth, Pennsylvania.[19]
In the 2008 movie The Wrestler, Allentown is mentioned by Mickey Rourke as a location where he had wrestled leading up to his comeback.
The television production company Medstar Television, which produced the series Medical Detectives from 1996 to 2000, and the series Forensic Files from 2000 on, is headquartered in Allentown. Locations throughout the city have been used as settings for dramatic reenactments of crimes profiled in the shows.
The city is the subject of the popular Billy Joel song, "Allentown", originally released on The Nylon Curtain album in 1982. Joel's song uses Allentown as a metaphor for the resilience of working class Americans in distressed industrial cities during the recession of the early 1980s.
The X-Filesseason 3 episode "Nisei," which aired November 25, 1995, is the first of a two-part episode in which character Dana Scully joins a UFO abductee group in Allentown. In the season 4 episode "Memento mori," which aired February 9, 1997, characters Fox Mulder and Scully return to Allentown to follow up with one of the women from Nisei.
Allentown is the hometown of up and coming showgirl Peggy Sawyer in the long-running, Tony Award-winning Broadway musical 42nd Street, released in 1980, and its associated Academy Award-nominated movie. When Sawyer expresses her desire to leave Broadway to return to Allentown, the show's director and entire cast successfully dissuade her by singing the famed musical number "Lullaby of Broadway".
In the 1960 musical Bye Bye Birdie, character Rosie Alvarez is from Allentown. In the song "Spanish Rose," she sings: "I'm just a Spanish Tamale according to Mae/ Right off the boat from the tropics, far, far away/ Which is kinda funny, since where I come from is Allentown, PA."
Allentown was mentioned in the song "200 Years Old" on the 1975 Frank Zappa album Bongo Fury.
